Edward and Eric/Development
Needs no introduction. 1982 *Development of Edward and Eric dates back to 1982, with the creation of a humble short, Bad Luck Benjamin. Many characters and concepts from this short would later be revived for Edward and Eric. The short itself was originally a project for School of Visual Arts, but interest in it increased overtime. 1992 *Around October of 1992, Gary Sauls, the creator of Bad Luck Benjamin, decided to revisit the concept and make it into a series. *During development, Sauls decided that he wanted his best friend, Edward Felker, to work on the show with him. Felker quickly agreed and arrived at Sauls' workplace. Sauls even renamed Benjamin into Edward to surprise him. 1993 *During an animation test, Felker's computer kept malfunctioning and it got him into a cussing fit. This had inspired Sauls to give Edward a nickname (one that would only appear in such situations), "PC Guy". *Sauls eventually decided that Edward needed a quirky sidekick of some sort, thus resulting in the creation of his younger brother, Eric. *The title of the show was eventually changed from "Edward and Eric's Comedy World" to just "Edward and Eric". *With the Pilot episode fully storyboarded, it was time for casting. Sauls quickly hired Andrew Rannells, who was living in his birthplace of Omaha, Nebraska at the time. He had auditioned for Sebastian and Stanley before finally settling for Edward. *Eric also needed a voice (duh), so Sauls had hired another actor - however, this actor remains unknown to this day. All that is known about him is that he was an adult actor and that after recording all of the season 1 episodes, Sauls felt that a child actor was more appropriate for Eric. 1994 *Sauls and Felker start working on Season 1 - or, more specifically, early versions of the Season 1 episodes that we all know today. *The series was originally going to have the characters attend summer camp instead of school. However, "it didn't really take off", and this idea was scrapped as a result. **This idea was revived in the actual series to a minor extent, as there are occasional Boy Scout-centered episodes. *The characters from Bad Luck Benjamin were all renamed, except for Edward who already was from the get-go. They also went through new designs that became their current designs. For example, Eric went from wearing a red hoodie to sporting a blue t-shirt. *When it came to making minor characters, Sauls wanted to make sure each of them had unique personalities and appearances. This resulted in characters like Christian, Luke, Larry, etc. *Because Season 1 was already starting development, Sauls thought that the series was an opportunity for any artists and animators in New York who needed a job. Eventually, several of them were hired, and before Sauls and Felker knew it, they had a group of 70 people working on the show with them. 1995 *By October, the series was being close to finished. However, several fixes to storyboards had to be made. This went from scrapping some lines, to completely changing endings. An infamous example of this is Monster Mania, where the original ending for it was Eric opening the fridge to make a sandwich, only for Frankenstein to brutally eat him. **However, one of the most major changes involves Carver. From the beginning, he wasn't intended to be the main antagonist of the series, as he was planned to only appear in two episodes. However, Sauls felt that he had potential, so this was ultimately changed, thus resulting in the Carver we all know today. 1996 *Now that Season 1 was finished in good condition, the production team worked on some of the early Season 2 episodes in case the show was renewed for another season. *It was time to cast voice actors for the rest of the characters. (WIP) 1997 *With everything else out of the way, it was time for the biggest moment of all: pitching the show. Sauls and Felker tried to pitch it to several networks available. Nickelodeon was interested, but they already had their eyes on a similar show. Cartoon Network never replied to them, The Walt Disney Company was uninterested, FOX Broadcasting Company promised to put the show on Fox Kids, but they never did, and PBS abruptly told them, "You guys aren't even trying." *However, as soon as they pitched it to Warner Bros., the company was immediately interested. (WIP) Category:Edward and Eric Category:Insecurity and TGB1's pages